Monthly Archives: October 2010

The £ value of equity

Posted on October 29, 2010 by

In reality, social policies come about through a mixture of pragmatics, principle, public opinion, politicking, and sheer accident. But in the ideal world of welfare economics,1 we could rationally decide whether to implement a policy by looking at its impact … Continue reading →

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Why we need to know each other’s pay: an experiment

Posted on October 27, 2010 by

Would you be happier if you found out that you earned more than other people at your workplace – particularly the people who do the same job as you? For obvious reasons, questions about relative pay have been around a … Continue reading →

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Attacking the poor in the UK

Posted on October 26, 2010 by

In a guest post, Daniel Sage asks how the UK Coalition have found it so easy to cut benefits for the poor. When the UK Chancellor brands benefit cheats as “muggers” and Arts Minister Jeremy Hunt asserts that the State … Continue reading →

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When There’s No More Fat to Trim: State Budgets and Public Opinion

Posted on October 24, 2010 by

When voters go to the polls on November 2nd, they won’t just be voting for national offices. Across the country there are many tightly contested state elections. While these races do not garner as much attention, they are arguably more … Continue reading →

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Do you like us?

Posted on October 22, 2010 by

Every day, new readers find out about the Inequalities Blog from Facebook. Do you like the blog in real life? Then like us on Facebook! Don’t forgot to subscribe (see the panel on the right, tweet about us, comment, and … Continue reading →

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High-Stakes Admissions Testing—Alleviating or Reproducing Inequality?

Posted on October 21, 2010 by

Kendra Bischoff argues that high-stakes tests can play an important role in evaluating student performance, but they can also unintentionally promote educational inequality. The U.S. education system is currently in a state of flux as the Obama administration pushes reform, … Continue reading →

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How to Study Culture without Blaming the Victim

Posted on October 20, 2010 by

American liberals don’t like talking about the “culture of poverty.” The very term evokes some of the most distorted and racist images of the ghetto and its stock characters — the deadbeat dad, the welfare queen, and the criminal youth. … Continue reading →

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The Mismeasurement of Unemployment: Why it Matters

Posted on October 19, 2010 by

The official unemployment rate is a bad measure of the labor market in a down economy — we should think about using existing alternatives and devising some new ones. The monthly unemployment reports from the United States Department of Labor … Continue reading →

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Where is There Scope for Bipartisan Social Policy Reform in the U.S.?

Posted on October 16, 2010 by

With U.S. mid-term elections coming up, and most reliable forecasts showing that Democrats will likely lose the majority in the House and several seats in the Senate, there’s a big unanswered question about whether there is scope to advance a … Continue reading →

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New Labour’s record on ‘class’

Posted on October 15, 2010 by

(1) A problem we often face as researchers is to cope with an overwhelming amount of information on different measures of different types of inequality.  As I posted earlier in the week, we need high-quality statistics – but we also … Continue reading →

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